Our Newsletter

We first heard about the Z-Trak in an article, Get On Z Track, by Tony Woods of Saratoga Llamas in the June 1999 Issue of The GALA Newsletter. We acquired our Z-Trak late in the fall and have not had the opportunity to test it during the growing season. We have found that when the temperature falls below 20 degrees the llama pellets are brittle and shatter. The result is pellet bits and a quantity of manure dust. We now use the Z-Trak only when the temperature is more moderate. It is also unusable when there is snow on the ground or during ‘mud season’.

We are organic gardeners and are happy to have a source of our own organic fertilizer for our pastures. Whether you use organic or chemical fertilizers on your pastures you need to be careful to maintain appropriate soil chemistry. There is some concern that some skin conditions found in llamas may be attributable to pastures and/or hay heavily fertilized with chemical fertilizers. Recently (see Toxic Hay, http://www.smartt.com/~brianp/hay.html) a number of llamas fell ill and died when they consumed hay grown on land fertilized with chicken manure. The nitrogen content of the hay was too high.

There are about as many theories about proper llama nutrition as there are llama owners. Some farms place an emphasis on high quality hay. Others use ‘starvation’ quality hay (to reduce the chances of obesity, see below) in combination with a grain supplement. When looking for your first llamas we recommend talking with a number of farms and members of your local llama organization and then work out what appears to be best for you and your llamas. The end result is what is important.

One of the biggest health problems for llamas is obesity. In their natural habitat the quality of forage for llamas tends to be low. Llamas are very efficient at processing what they eat. We monitor our llamas weight by weighing them monthly and by body scoring them. Whenever we go out in the pastures with our llamas we will run our hands down the spines of whatever llamas happen to be near and we make a special effort to body score our lactating females. A nursing cria can quickly draw down the weight of its mother. We then adjust our feeding regimen if necessary.

During the months when our pastures are growing our primary source of nutrition for the llamas is the grasses growing in the pastures. We do provide a small amount of grain supplement (we use Agway’s Llama Supplement) and we always have minerals available on a free choice basis. Lactating females receive an increased grain supplement ration, the

amount of which is based upon how well they are maintaining their weight. For lactating females who are having particular difficulty in maintaining their weight we will mix in some Blue Seal Milk Maker with the Agway Llama Supplement (1/3 Milk Maker, 2/3 Llama Supplement).

When our pastures stop growing the primary source of nutrition for our llamas is hay. Due to the unusual weather of the past several years the quality of the hay we have acquired has varied significantly. We increase the amount of grain supplement during this period. During particularly cold weather we will further increase the amount of supplement. We make the hay available on a free choice basis and normally provide the grain supplement in the early morning when it will boost the available energy to help the llamas cope with the cold weather. During periods of extreme cold and wind chills we will provide grain supplement both early in the morning and late in the afternoon.

We caution against using horse feed for llamas. The copper content may be too high. We also caution against using a mineralized salt block where the copper content may also be too high.

We acquire our minerals through the Maine Llama Association. These minerals have been balanced for the conditions in our area. As noted earlier we make the minerals available on a free choice basis.

Llamas are browsers and enjoy having access to things that they can nibble on at head height. They love pine needles and we will occasionally toss a pine bough into their pasture as a treat. We cut our own Christmas tree on our property and will give it to the llamas when we are done with it. We do not recommend using a commercially acquired tree since it may have been sprayed with an anti-desiccant. When planning your pasture for your llamas you should keep in mind that they are browsers and that any fruit trees might quickly be defoliated and de-barked. You should also make sure that you do not have any yews or wild cherry trees within their reach.

We just completed reconstructing our second creep and it is, by far, the more successful of our two creeps. In the picture above, the creep is the structure on the right. We have found that the best way to bar a larger llama from entering the creep is to restrict the width of the entry. Restricting the height proves only to be an interesting challenge for the larger llamas, some of whom are quite adept at inching through an entry on their stomachs. By trial and error we found that we could bar our larger llamas from entering the reconstructed creep by restricting the widest opening to 12½ inches. Our creep has another entry which we use for introducing our crias to the creep.

To introduce the crias to the creep we bring both the cria and its mother into the creep via the other entry. The mother will quickly devour any grain while the cria investigates the creep. The presence of the mother has a calming effect upon the cria We bar the exit of the cria from the creep until it fully calms down. You might have to try this procedure several times. Once the cria catches on to the creep it will visit it on a regular basis.

We place hay, minerals and grain supplement in the creep. We measure the amount of grain supplement we put in and then measure the amount that is left when we next fill the bowl.

February 1, 2000: We had used green lumber when constructing the creep and had not factored in the impact of the lumber drying. The widest opening increased to 12¾ inches and Jazzy Lady found her way in - several times. We have now narrowed the opening to 11½ inches. 

February 13, 2000: Zoritta also found her way in. The opening was narrowed to10 inches last week and this width has been working quite well.

The following material is excerpted from an earlier newsletter and is augmented by the recent addition of a special hay rack.

The hayracks in our barns when we moved in were the traditional barred hayracks. We observed the following deficiencies:

We designed our own hay feeders. Rather than being open at the sides and bottom, they are open only at the top with a cut down area at one end to enable the crias to gain access to the hay. They butt up against the walls. We used plywood and 2"x4" studs to construct the feeders. The tops of the feeders are 33" off the ground and the bottoms are 12" off the ground. The cutouts for the crias are 14" wide and 10" deep. The distance from front to back is 20" at the top and 12" at the bottom. The tops of the feeders and the cria cutouts are all framed with 2"x4"’s. The length is constrained only by the available space. The llamas enjoy digging down into the hay. While we still have some hay spillage, it is materially reduced from the spillage we had been experiencing.

In one of our shelters and the barn we use heated water buckets. In another shelter we use an insulated water container given to us by another farm. We have found that the thermostats in the heated water buckets are not uniform and some buckets are warmer than others. Our llamas have a decided preference for the insulated water container and the heated water buckets which maintain a lower temperature. The insulated water container is built out of plywood and the insulation is foam which surrounds a pail that had a previous life as a container for sheetrock joint compound. It works quite well.

We are using a total of six heated water buckets and there is a noticeable increase in our electricity bill during cold weather. We will be looking at other solutions to providing water year round. For the small operation the heated water buckets work well.

January 23, 2000: After a rather mild start to the winter we now have gone through several spells where the wind chill levels dropped to a range of -40º to -60º. Today, mercifully, the winds have dropped and the llamas are enjoying moving around the pastures even though the air temperature is close to zero. Ridge Mist Llamas, during such periods of extreme wind chills, give their llamas warm water. We liken it to our wanting hot coffee, tea or cocoa when we have been out in the extreme cold. We offered our llamas a choice of water temperatures this morning. We found that, in general, they preferred the cooler water. We do not feel that this was a good test, because we no longer had the extreme wind chills. We think the idea has much merit and will be testing it in more depth during the next period of extreme wind chills. We will keep you posted on our results.

We encourage visits to our web site: http://www.greenbriarllamas.com for information about such diverse topics as fencing, chutes, scales and farm records.